[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

An ESL fan? I have also considered the Martin Logan ElectroMotion. It seems a bit too bright to me though.
 
Would pairing a bassy headphone with a X-Fi card without changing EQ make a good match?

 
Electrostatic enthusiasts consider the MartinLogan ones trash...apparently, it's all about Quad and Acoustat. Not that I have anything to say directly, for I've never heard any ESL model with my own two ears. (Nobody around me owns any electrostatic gear, let alone knows that it exists.)
 
I'll admit, I got into electrostatics out of sheer curiosity about a relatively exotic technology...well, that and people were singing praises about Stax Lambdas for gaming as well as music. I was ultimately pleased when I got my first SR-Lambda set, even if it means I have to have this big A/V receiver on my desk to feed the bundled transformer box that drives these headphones. (Dedicated 'stat amps are out of my reach for now.)
 
I don't see why bassy headphones paired with X-Fi cards would be a cause for concern, even with EQ and bass boost off. The headphones themselves are providing the majority of the frequency response coloration, after all.

 

[0sync0]

Quote:

I am very analytical about my audio.

Even when gaming?
 
Go for the Smyth Realiser if you want the best.

 

[crzycuyler]

Quote:

 
Electrostatic enthusiasts consider the MartinLogan ones trash...apparently, it's all about Quad and Acoustat. Not that I have anything to say directly, for I've never heard any ESL model with my own two ears. (Nobody around me owns any electrostatic gear, let alone knows that it exists.)
 
I'll admit, I got into electrostatics out of sheer curiosity about a relatively exotic technology...well, that and people were singing praises about Stax Lambdas for gaming as well as music. I was ultimately pleased when I got my first SR-Lambda set, even if it means I have to have this big A/V receiver on my desk to feed the bundled transformer box that drives these headphones. (Dedicated 'stat amps are out of my reach for now.)
 
I don't see why bassy headphones paired with X-Fi cards would be a cause for concern, even with EQ and bass boost off. The headphones themselves are providing the majority of the frequency response coloration, after all.

 
Who says Martin Logan is trash? Is it just that they use hybrid speakers. There is an electrostat transducer and a woofer. They are nice speakers. I really am considering them. The battle in my mind (although completely different sounds) is the Sonus Faber Toy Tower vs Martin Logan ElectroMotion. I work at Best Buy and get extraordinary discounts on products such as these.
 
Quote:

Even when gaming?
 
Go for the Smyth Realiser if you want the best.

I can't even begin to justify that price. It looks quite dreamy, though.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

Who says Martin Logan is trash? Is it just that they use hybrid speakers. There is an electrostat transducer and a woofer. They are nice speakers. I really am considering them. The battle in my mind (although completely different sounds) is the Sonus Faber Toy Tower vs Martin Logan ElectroMotion. I work at Best Buy and get extraordinary discounts on products such as these.

 
It's less about the hybrid speaker aspect and more about their use of curved panels, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to distribute the force evenly across the electrostatic diaphragm. So they say, anyway.
 
You could ask spritzer if you want more information on anything electrostatic. The Stax community holds him in high regard, enough to be the don of the Stax Mafia in a sense.
 
I figured the Smyth Realiser would be out of your price range, but at least it's something to aspire to if you want no-compromises virtual 7.1.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Anyone heard about this?
 
http://www.myears.net.au/
 
 
Quote:

The MyEars™ service is one of Personal Audio�s products for video games. It enables the superb listening experience produced by NextGen video games and 7.1 sound systems over headphones. This results in a much greater sense of immersion in the games and a competitive advantage for gamers.
The MyEars™ service uses a series of listening tests so that our prediction engine can generate your personalised listening profile. You then download your profile together with the rendering tool MyEars-Connect and these install automatically onto your PC. MyEars-Connect will allow you to play any video-game that outputs surround sound over headphones and use your MyEars audio profile to experience the stunning immersion of this NextGen audio � all without the expense and hassle of a speaker based audio system. For 12 months from the data of purchase we will host your profiles in your MyEars account which you can access from any connected PC. This means that you can use your MyEars™ profile where ever you are. It also means that when you upgrade or change your headphones you can come back and recalibrate your listening. During this period you will also get upgrades and enhancement to MyEars Connect and of course the MyEars prediction Engine will continue to improve. Of course we will also keep you informed of other major upgrades such adding more platforms eg Xbox, PS3, iPhone/iPad etc.
MyEars™ connect is our PC solution (other platforms coming soon) to enable perfect surround sound for all legacy games over headphones. Your games will need to support surround sound to take advantage of this option, most NextGen games provide this, check out the games audio option set up panel. If you want to try before you but simply join up, its free, you can create your own individualised audio profiles and download them to you PC and you have 14 days to experience the MyEars difference. Once you are satisfied you can easily come back to your account on the MyEars and purchase your profile for gaming, anywhere, anytime.

 

[0sync0]

Quote:

Anyone heard about this?
 
http://www.myears.net.au/
 
 

I tried it briefly last week. I found the calibration process frustrating. Even they say people have difficulty with it.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Refurb X-Fi Titaniums for $52 shipped on Newegg!
 
This is more in line with what the card should cost normally. Might want to get in on this if you're looking for a reasonably affordable sound card for PC gaming with a PCIe interface.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Refurb X-Fi Titaniums for $52 shipped on Newegg!
 
This is more in line with what the card should cost normally. Might want to get in on this if you're looking for a reasonably affordable sound card for PC gaming with a PCIe interface.

I'm an Xonar fan, but $52 for the X-fi Titanium (non-HD) is a good value.
Do you know if it ships with Alchemy for free or is it a separate $10 charge for Alchemy?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

I'm an Xonar fan, but $52 for the X-fi Titanium (non-HD) is a good value.
Do you know if it ships with Alchemy for free or is it a separate $10 charge for Alchemy?

 
All X-Fi cards come with ALchemy.
 
It's the Audigy cards that Creative tried to make ALchemy payware for, but Daniel_K may have put a dent in that after hacking an early version of ALchemy to work on any sound device.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Why did Creative not allow 7.1 for Titanium HDs in the Windows Audio Panel? Other cards like the X-Fi Titanium Fatality etc. offer the ability. In theory (for CMSS-3D) 7.1 should give an even better HRTF.

 

[Phos]

I have my windows sound set to 7.1.  Seems to work fine.  

 

[NamelessPFG]

Quote:

Why did Creative not allow 7.1 for Titanium HDs in the Windows Audio Panel? Other cards like the X-Fi Titanium Fatality etc. offer the ability. In theory (for CMSS-3D) 7.1 should give an even better HRTF.

 
Those other cards support 7.1 analog output.
 
The Titanium HD only outputs stereo through analog, and only supports 5.1 because of Dolby Digital/DTS support through S/PDIF. No HDMI output, either.
 
Creative really should've released a 7.1 expansion card or something, like the Essence ST, Claro Halo, and SE-300PCIE have.

 

[Fegefeuer]

That SE-300PCIE is heavy to import to Germany. A shame. I would have gotten one already.
 
At least virtually Creative could have offered 7.1, just for CMSS-3D. Dolby Digital Live autoswitches to 5.1 anyway. 
 
Another question: I setup Alchemy for Source Games manually, not with registry settings but with direct steam folder names where the executable is located. I entered the snd_legacy_surround in config.cfg and my own autoexec.cfg. This should be sufficient or is there some magic requirement of registry settings in Alchemy? I can't imagine that.

 

[NamelessPFG]

I feel for you on the SE-300PCIE. Importing that thing to the US is also pretty expensive.
 
ALchemy shouldn't require any registry settings. It's just that Creative liked to set it up to use those to get the installation path. Can't say I blame them given that I never use default installation paths, and a lot of other people probably change them too.
 
I don't even bother with the ALchemy interface most of the time; I just copy the dsound.dll and dsound.ini to the game's executable directory (or, in the case of Source engine games without obvious executables, the root directory).
 
As for Source games, just setting snd_legacy_surround 1 should be sufficient. (The only Source game I've encountered that didn't have the option at all for whatever reason is The Ship.)

 

[Dead Ghost]

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Problem is, most games do not encode Dolby Digital or DTS on-the-fly, so the sound output device needs to support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect to work as intended. Once that's done, external A/V receivers and headphone DSPs like the Astro Mixamp, Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS, and JVC/Victor SU-DH1 will actually have some surround information to work with.

Sorry, i don't know if this was answered before, are you saying that if i use a DSP like Astro Mixamp, directly from the digital output of a motherboard's soundcard that doesn't support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect, i won't get the full surround effect (like Dolby Headphone, in the case of JVC DH1 or Ear Force DSS)? Is this correct? 
 
Btw, thank you for your very informative post, it's really useful.